Progressive Web Apps (sometimes referred to as PWAs, because everything in tech needs an acronym) is the encapsulating term for websites following a certain approach, that meet particular technical criteria. The “app” involvement in the name isn’t an accident – these creations share much of the functionality that you’ll find in native experiences – but really, they’re just websites.

It’s like if you build a website that is so damn good, you get to have a home screen icon on mobile devices. And good is defined by performance and progressive enhancement.

When you hear people say “I want the web to win” they typically mean “I don’t want to lose the web to proprietary app development”. PWAs seem like an early step toward making web apps not second-class citizens on mobile devices. Maybe there is a future where native app development is web development.